This annual issue of the magazine is always one of my favorites -- it's a good way to look back at the year through the lens of some of the more interesting or inane ideas that were inflicted on us all. Many of these showed up in either the mainstream press or the blogosphere, so weren't really "new" ideas, but fun nonetheless. Knot physics and prison poker were my too favorites. I figure I batted about 80 percent in terms of having conversational capability on this issue (as in -- I was aware enough of them to sustain a cocktail conversation). Can't say the same about the best books section in the NYT Book review. Clearly I need to shift some of my reading time from the computer to the book pages...